A conservative watchdog organization has raised questions about federal funding tied to civil rights education programs, including a $2.5 million National Institutes of Health-backed University of Michigan project that incorporates curriculum from the Southern Poverty Law Center into middle school classrooms. OpenTheBooks said Friday that $1,352,655.07 in taxpayer dollars had been paid directly to the SPLC from school districts, states, cities, counties, universities and other public entities since the tenth year of this funding relationship, fiscal year 2016.
The Educational Partnership Under Scrutiny
OpenTheBooks said the University of Michigan project materials describe the grant as integrating the SPLC's "Learning for Justice" curriculum, previously called "Teaching Tolerance," into programming for middle-school classrooms. The grant's original Freedom of Information Act-obtained application said researchers would integrate "the Teaching Tolerance curriculum from the Southern Poverty Law Center" into an existing middle school program and test it across six Genesee County, Michigan, middle schools.
Fox News Digital said 8th-grade lesson materials from the SPLC curriculum, which it reviewed, directed students to a "map of active hate groups" suggesting "anti-gay" and "radical traditionalist Catholic" organizations are equivalent to the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis and Black-Separatists. Other Learning for Justice youth materials encourage students to see themselves as part of a "movement for justice" and included toolkits for sustained activism. Materials for grades 6-8 and 9-12 include tasks directing students to write letters to corporate or elected officials calling for action and organizing live social media chats to raise awareness for social justice issues.
Federal Response and Current Status
President Donald Trump's Department of Health and Human Services told Fox News Digital the program "is no longer being funded" and has been "redesigned" to focus on reducing teen and family violence. OpenTheBooks, however, pointed to the University of Michigan's current project page, which still says the active NIH-backed project integrates SPLC's Learning for Justice curriculum and lists SPLC as a partner. FOIA-obtained NIH records also show the original grant documents repeatedly described the project as integrating SPLC's Teaching Tolerance curriculum into the YES program.
Congressional Hearing and Political Debate
The scrutiny comes the same week the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled "The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate," examining what the committee described as SPLC's role in "distorting civil rights policy" and newly released information that the group allegedly funneled money to extremists it was claiming to combat. The hearing featured testimony from Tyler O'Neil, author of "Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center" and a Daily Signal senior reporter, who told Fox News Digital that "the NIH needs to address parents' concerns about this grant." O'Neil also said, "The Southern Poverty Law Center's Learning for Justice project pushes critical race theory and transgender ideology. Meanwhile, the SPLC uses its 'hate map' to condemn parental rights groups on the other side of the issue, silencing opposition to its agenda by comparing these groups to the Ku Klux Klan. Federal tax dollars should not promote this divisive program in schools."
Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said, "Utilizing taxpayer resources to promote harmful, leftwing rhetoric in our education systems is inappropriate, and I support efforts to root out and expose organizations like SPLC." He added, "I support the important work of the House Judiciary Committee to expose the nefarious agenda, funding, and tactics of the Southern Poverty Law Center."
Broader Context of SPLC Programs
Fox News Digital said it reached out to the University of Michigan, including the grant's project leader, Professor Marc Zimmerman, and Kate Barnes, a communications manager for the university's Office of the Vice President for Research, but did not immediately receive a response. The article also said the Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted by the Department of Justice last month over allegations of wire fraud, false statements and conspiracy to commit money laundering tied to what prosecutors described as a covert paid-informant program involving individuals associated with extremist groups. The Department of Justice alleges that the program secretly funneled donor money to informants inside extremist groups, but SPLC has denied wrongdoing.
OpenTheBooks president John Hart said, "Taxpayers have the right to know what groups, like the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has financed racial animosity, are doing with their money." OpenTheBooks also said its figures may understate SPLC's taxpayer-backed footprint because free classroom resources and teacher-training materials often do not show up in spending databases. The watchdog said, "Open the Books only came upon the details of 'Teaching Tolerance' and the SPLC curriculum by submitting a FOIA request and waiting ten weeks. That suggests there could be plenty more indirect support for the nonprofit that's not readily visible to taxpayers," and added that a second investigation into the Pentagon's K-12 public schools also turned up SPLC learning materials.
A previous Fox News Digital report, citing an investigation by conservative nonprofit Defending Education, found SPLC's Learning for Justice program had been integrated into K-12 lesson plans and materials in 169 school districts across 42 states and Washington, D.C., including in classrooms as early as kindergarten. Defending Education said the materials promoted themes including "anti-racism," White privilege, White supremacy, "whiteness," gender ideology, "queer theory," and more.
Why This Matters:
This debate highlights fundamental questions about how schools address issues of racial justice, civil rights history, and civic engagement in an increasingly polarized educational landscape. The controversy reflects broader tensions over whether teaching materials that encourage students to recognize structural inequality and engage in activism represent essential civic education or inappropriate political indoctrination. For educators and school districts that have adopted these materials across 42 states, the federal scrutiny raises questions about the stability of resources designed to help young people understand discrimination and develop tools for democratic participation. The fact that the University of Michigan project was designed to be tested in six middle schools in Genesee County suggests the potential reach of federally-funded educational research into communities seeking evidence-based approaches to teaching about justice and equality. The ongoing legal proceedings against the SPLC and the congressional hearing examining the organization's work underscore how institutions focused on civil rights education now face unprecedented political and legal challenges that may reshape public discourse about how students learn to engage with America's complex history of discrimination and social movements.